Comments on: [One-Minute Makeover] Algebra 1 • Topic 4 Assessment

By: mrdardy

mrdardy — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 11:09:15 +0000

Michael
I am guessing that you are familiar with http://www.graphingstories.com This might be a bit of a way to make inroads to that gulf between words/meanings and graphs/symbolic manipulations

By: Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 03:57:05 +0000

@mathnerdjet Those are great tasks. I did Dan Meyer’s version of the cups activity this year (http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=692) and we had a blast. Four different cup styles… I haven’t done the rope activity in a while. I should bring that back. Concrete tasks like these would certainly make that sort of assessment question more accessible to kids. Thanks for sharing!

By: mathnerdjet

mathnerdjet — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 03:41:02 +0000

One of my favorite linear equations is to measure a piece of thin rope (already cut to about 2 – 3 feet long), record its length, tie a knot, record the length, tie another knot, record the length, etc. Then you can relate y-intercept to the length of the rope, and the amount of rope used to make the knot is the slope. Students can predict how long the rope will be after tying 10 or 15 knots. How short can the rope get? And there is always the stacking the Styrofoam cups activity. These may not work well as assessments, but if you used these activities to practice writing equations, then they would be more prepared for the type of assessment you want them to be able to do.

By: Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 02:58:38 +0000

@mslcbillings Great suggestion! I think it probably wouldn’t work well to spring something like this on my students during an assessment without prior experience, but if I made “write an equation and scenario” a regular part of (maybe a weekly feature?) I think they’d benefit big time. Then tacking a question like you suggested onto my assessment would just be icing on the cake.

By: mslcbillings

mslcbillings — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 00:56:09 +0000

Could you give them a graphical representation of a linear equation and ask them to write both an equation and a scenario that fits? This is language intensive, so it may not be a good fit for your students.